Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 8 Social Science Notes Chapter 3 Water Resources
In nature life is possible due to water. Due to water ail activities of living organisms including man could be done. The use of water is done in activities like-drinking, domestic purpose, irrigation and production of electricity, boating, recreation and industries etc. Those water resources which are useful for man or which has possibilities of use are called water resources, water resources of Rajasthan. Among main water resources of Rajasthan are- lakes, rivers and dams built on them, canals, ponds, well and tube well etc.
Drainage System:
A system of water flow formed by a main river and its tributaries is known as the drainage system. It is influenced by the surface structure and geological structure. The natural feature of water is that it flows along slopes.
Water Distributing Line:
The elevated land between two adjacent drainage basins which drains the rain water into different directions is known as the water distributing line. E.g. the Aravali mountains in Rajasthan.
Drainage System of Rajasthan is divided into three parts:
- The Bay of Bengal Drainage System
- The Arabian Sea Drainage System
- Inland Drainage System
Main Rivers of Rajasthan:
- Chambal: It is the longest and only perenial river of Rajasthan. It merges with Yamuna river in UP. Rajasthan’s industrial city is located on it’s bank.
- Banas: It is the main tributary of river Chambal. The confluence of rivers Banas, Bedatch and Menal which is called Triveni is located near Begod (Bhilwara). Tonk and Sawai-Madhopur are located on the bank of Banas river.
- Luni: It originates by the merging of two water currents Saraswati and Sagarmati in Ajmer district near Govind Garh. Water of this river is usable (portable) up to Balotra of Badmer district after it becomes saline,
- Mahi: It is originated from the Amruree in Vindhyachal mountain in Madhya Pradesh. It flows through the Banswara and Pratapgarh districts of Rajasthan and flows down in the Khambat. In Banswara district Mahi Bajaj Sagar dam is built on this river.
- Banganga: It originates from hill of Bairath of Aravali located in Jaipur district. The water of it forms the swamp land by entering underground in Bharatpur in Ghana national bird sanctuary.
- Ghaggar: It originates from Shivalik range of Himalayan mountain in Himachal Pradesh. It enters in Hanumangarh in north Rajasthan and becomes underground in Sriganganagar. It is considered as the tributary of ancient Saraswati river. It is the longest inland drainage river of Rajasthan.
Multipurpose Projects:
By building dams on rivers for production of electricity, irrigation, supply of drinking water, increase in underground water level, flood control, soil erosion and tourism are fullfilled, due to these reasons they are called multipurpose projects. Due to their importance they are called the Temples of modern India’ by the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Late Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.
Main River Valley Projects of Rajasthan:
- Chambal Project: It is a joint venture of Rajasthan and Uttar pradesh. It provides hydro power and irrigation facilities to both states. Total four dams are built under this plan. Among them Gandhi Sagar Dam is in Mandsaur district of M.P. and other three are in Rajasthan. Rana Pratap Sagar in Chittor district, Jawahar sagar and Kota barrage in district Kota.
- Mahi Bajaj Sagar Project: It is a joint venture of Rajasthan and Gujarat. It also provides water for drinking and irrigation to both states hydropower is also being produced.
- Bisalpur Project: This plan was built by the role objective of supplying drinking water. It is built on Banas river in Bisalpur village near Todaraisingh Nagar in Tonk district of Rajasthan.
- Sardar Sarovar Project: It is a joint venture of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Its dam is built on Narmada river in Gujarat. A canal is brought to Badmer and Jalore district cf south-west Rajasthan which is providing the facility of drinking water and irrigation.
- Other river valley Projects such as Jawai project in the Pali district, Som Kamla Aamba project in Dungarpur district, Mansi Vakal Project in Udaipur district and Jakham project in Pratapgarh district.
Main Canals of Rajasthan:
- Ganga Canal: This is the first canal of Rajasthan constructed by the then Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner in 1927 to bring water to the Western Rajasthan. Presently this canal water is used for irrigation in Sriganganagar.
- Indira Gandhi Canal: As suggested in 1948 by Kanwar Sen of Bikaner, Harike Barrage Dam was started in 1952. The main river is 649 km long, and its distributaries are about 8000 km long. They together irrigate about 19 lac hectare area. It is the largest canal system of Asia and is also known as Maruganga.This canal has helped in the development of agriculture, check on tne expansion of deserts, drought and famine, production of hydro electricity, etc.
- Bharatpur Canal: It has been taken out from the Western Yamuna canal. It irrigates only Bharatpur area in Rajasthan.
Water Conservation and Management:
In general terms, it means careful maintenance and management of water resources so as to avoid their misuse and overuse.
Measures for conservation of water:
Maintenance and conservation, avoidance of throwing domestic and industrial wastes in the water resources such as tanks, ponds, wells etc. redistribution and recycling of water, besides use of latest techniques of irrigation, control on population growth, expansion of forests, careful use of underground water etc. Such efforts can bring reforms in the condition of scarcity and degradation of water.
Many types of water resources are found in every region of Rajasthan. In ancient time water was supplied to the people from these resources and maintained them. The then rulers did many efforts for water collection and conservation. Such efforts were made by Ranas of Udaipur which are worth mentioned here.
Lake of Jaisamand is a good example of it:
It was built by the Maharana of Mewar Jai singh from 1687 – 1691 A.D. on river Gomati. It is considered as the world’s largest man-made lake of fresh water. The examples of the oldest methods of the conservation of water by turning and joining rivers and lakes can be seen in Mewar Chickalwas canal. It was built by Maharana Fateh Singh by building a dam on river Ahad to supply excess water of rainy season in Phateh Sagar. It is 6 km away from in north west Udaipur. In this way 118 years ago water of Ahad river was reached to Fateh Sagar. The serialy built ponds in 470 km spread in valley area and join rivers by the then rulers in people’s interest is an excellent and praise worthy work in the field of water collection and conservation which is being continue smoothly even today.
The best example of water management resources in ancient times in the world can be seen in Udaipur Basin. To quote some of them as Govardhan Sagar, Dhood Talai, Pichhola lake, Amar Kund, Kumaria pond, Ranga Sagar Swaroop Sagar and Fateh Sagar. During the rainy seasons when all these water sources are filled to the brim, their water level gets merged. Maharana Raj Singh was the first to turned the flow of the river artificially and gave it stability. The rain water of Ubhayeshwar region a famous pilgrimage of Mewar, was turned and merged in Morwani river. In this way rainwater of Ubhayeshwar was supplied to Jana Sagar and Fateh Sagar, It was done in between 1670-85 A.D.